Comment on How soon do you get there?
ToastedRavioli@midwest.social 16 hours agoIf the two locations are close maybe, but most of the time I would say theyre not remotely as fast.
You can fly from New York to LA in 6 hours. On a train it would take like 3 days
Only because US train system is biased toward freight.
Not complaining, it is what it is.
That said, I don’t see any pragmatic way to build passenger high-speed rail across the US. Every state would want it to run for them - otherwise they won’t support it. Then every city, etc.
The US rail network is already kind of a disaster. A lot of major cities don’t even have passenger rail stations at all. There are entire STATES that don’t have a single amtrack station lol.
Just for clarity, this map doesn’t show all Amtrak stations. The cities pictured are just the big ones on the routes
It would be most feasible to have like three high speed trains in the US. Up and down both coasts, and then east coast to west coast through the midwest, Denver, SLC etc.
That alone would be enough to replace a ton of car and plane trips, even if it didn’t provide service everywhere
We can’t even build a single HSR line anywhere in the US
We’re a long ways away from being able to even think about trans-continental HSR
We simply do not have the competence to do it
Okay yea “often” was bit of an exaggeration on my part
I suspect DekSomBoon is talking about sensible countries
If, in this context, “sensible” means “smaller than half of Texas” maybe…
birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 hours ago
Depends on what type of train it is. A passenger aeroplane travels around 800 km/hr, a ‘typical’ train about 150-200. However, the commercial high-speed Fuxing reaches an average speed of 320 km/hr, enabling to go from Beijing to Nanjing (1,020 km) in 3.2 hours.
ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 hours ago
Meanwhile Amtrak trains: 74mph, unless you’re on the Acela, then top is 150mph.
Mirshe@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Try closer to 30 average. Most rail isn’t rated for above 50 outside the Northeast Corridor, and you’re also pausing for hours at a time sometimes because freight rail gets priority treatment.
ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 hours ago
Not sure, and actually I think passenger gets priority, but there’s so few compared to freight it porb leans that way.